Magnetite sludge, a highly insulative magnetic oxide of iron, is a serious contaminant found in the water of older hydronic heating systems. Its presence has been known to cause a reduction in system efficiency and can potentially lead to the failure of expensive system components, including the boiler. Therefore, water filtration in a hydronic heating system is essential to achieving optimum performance, reliability and longevity of the system, as a whole.
There are a variety of commercially available filters capable of removing the sludge from the water in hydronic heating systems to mitigate against these negative effects. Two such types include conventional mesh filters, which utilize a mesh to capture the sludge, and magnetic filters, which employ strong magnets to produce a magnetic field or loading zone that captures the magnetite sludge. While conventional mechanical/mesh filters can filter the sludge in the same size range as magnetic filters, drawbacks such as flow restrictions are significant to the hydronic heating system.
Magnetic filters, on the other hand, successfully overcome many drawbacks of these conventional filters. However, while the magnetic filters have proven to be effective, the magnetite sludge captured by the magnet often builds up outside the body of the magnet over time, and thereby reduces the filtration efficiency of the magnetic filter. Hence, frequent physical inspection and cleaning of the magnetic filters to assure their continued removal of the sludge from the circulating water are required for the successful ongoing use of the magnetic filters.
In connection with the above, because these magnetic filters are currently unable to remotely provide the user of the hydronic heating system with the status of the magnetic filters (i.e., whether the filter is functioning efficiently to capture magnetite or whether it is near capacity/saturation), the maintenance operations necessary to keep such filters functioning properly are often not performed and completed in a timely fashion. As a result, magnetic filters in the hydronic heating system are often clogged and become ineffective due to the lack of timely cleaning.
In view of the above, there is a need for a system and method that provides for the real-time monitoring of the magnetic filters in a hydronic heating system, and which can remotely provide a user with a notification regarding the needed maintenance work.